


Austrian Succession Crisis

by MirTheOne



Category: Crusader Kings 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate History, Artistic Liberties, Artistic License, medieval politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26038405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirTheOne/pseuds/MirTheOne
Summary: The year was 1304 when Archduchess Maria II of Austria inherited the throne. Unlike most other monarchs though, she didn’t inherit the throne from her parent or grandparent. She inherited the throne from her grandson, Karl II of Austria. As a 53-years-old woman with no heir, Maria must quickly find an heir or Austria might found itself in a succession crisis.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	Austrian Succession Crisis

To understand how this succession crisis happened, we first need to delve into some backstory.

Maria II of Austria was the daughter of Archduchess Maria I of Austria. When his brother, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, died without an heir, her son Karl I became the new archduke, thus skipping over her as accordance to the semi-salic law. However, her son would die of the plague soon after being elected Holy Roman Emperor, leaving the throne to her only grandson Karl II. When he too died four years later of the plague, Maria II took the throne.

Now, Maria was Head of the House of Habsburg, one of the most powerful families in Europe who controlled many lands, most of them in the Holy Roman Empire. However, most of these people were _female-line_ descendant whose male ancestor matrilineally married a Habsburg woman.

When Maria II took the throne, there were _nine_ different Habsburgs of Duke-level title or higher. One of them the Holy Roman Emperor. All of them were in the Holy Roman Empire, and all of them vying for the position of Heir of Austria, as it would also grant them the title Head of House of Habsburg. 

However, Maria knew that giving the throne to one of the German claimants would destroy the power balance within the empire. The non-Habsburg nobles had been seething at the Habsburg hegemony within the empire, and if the powerful Austria joined with, say, the _also_ powerful Prussian or Swabian branch, it will turn the rest of the empire against the Habsburgs. She couldn’t give it to the Norwegian Habsburgs either, because even though they were a female-line matrilineal descent like most of the Habsburgs within the Empire, their female-line branch from the Brabantian branch, not the main Austrian branch.

So Maria II set out to find the nearest direct male-line descendant who was not closely tied to a major Duke or King within the Empire. Which is a task that is much, much harder than it sounds.

You see, while the female-line descendants were numerous, the most senior line of the Habsburgs severely lacked male branches. Prior to Maria II’s great-great grandfather Ernst II, their titles were not Archdukes of Austria, but rather merely Dukes of Austria. And the last person in the senior line to have a brother who didn’t die without issue was Duke Ferdinand II of Austria, Ernst II’s father.

Ferdinand II’s brother, Sieghard, was elected Holy Roman Emperor after the death of their father, Kaiser Reinhold the Leper, Duke of Austria. He was given the title Duke of Holland and Navarra, which he passed on to his sons, but he only had granddaughters, making that line female-descent by the time Maria II took the throne.

Ernst II himself only had one son, Ernst III. And while he had several sons, only one was legitimate, Sigismund, who died without issue before Ernst III’s death. So, the throne passed to his oldest daughter Maria I, and the rest you already know.

Maria II actually had another son, Christopher, and a daughter, Maria. However, they both died even before Karl II died, and both died without ever having children. As Maria II was already in her 50s when she took the throne, there was no doubt that the senior branch of the House of Habsburg would die with her.

Now if we want to be very specific and only pick direct male-line male descendants for the throne, that would be Count Gunzelin of Zeeland, Maria II’s 8th cousin once removed. In all other cases, he would be the perfect candidate, seeing how out-of-the-way he was from Habsburg politics while being a direct male-line descendant. However, his claim was traced from Count Otto of Basel, Ferdinand I of Austria’s grandfather. Ferdinand I being the first Habsburg Duke of Austria. 

As he, unlike most other Habsburg Dukes and Counts who descended from Ferdinand I’s many daughters, traced his lineage to a Count of Basel, his claim was much weaker than the others despite being male-line. This is also what disqualified the Irish Habsburgs and the Dukes of Upper Lorraine, as they also trace their male-line lineage to a Count of Basel, not a Duke of Austria.

However, there was a silver lining for Maria II. Aside from his many daughters and Kaiser Reinhold the Leper, Ferdinand I had _another_ son, Count Rudolf of Gent. And unlike most other non-inheriting Habsburg sons, Rudolf had a long male-line descent.

By the time the Maria II was on the throne, the Count of Gent title was voided and revoked by the liege. The last Habsburg Count of Gent died in 1276, and his 3 sons went various ways. His oldest, Claes’, oldest grandson was Baron Steven of Brandenburg, but he was the son of Claes’ daughter, which means that the line turned matrilineal.

Claes’ younger brother Gerulf though, have an unmarried daughter. He married Countess Margareta of Thessalia and had two daughters, Athanasia and Helena. Maria II’s 6th cousins. As Gerulf was dead by the time Maria II took the throne, his 29-years-old unmarried daughter Athanasia was the most legible candidate for the Austrian throne.

There was just one obstacle though. Athanasia was engaged to Matvey Lyubechanin, the illegitimate son of Count Viacheslav of Upper Silesia. Unlike every other Habsburg and their spouses, Matvey was not a Catholic. He was an Orthodox Christian. And Athanasia refused to take the throne if she was not allowed to marry Matvey.

Now you might be thinking. Why didn’t Maria II give the throne to Helena, or the Claes and Gerulf’s youngest brother’s descendant? Well, that’s because at that point Helena was _already_ married to a non-Habsburg and converted to Orthodoxy, while the youngest brother’s only living descendant was his granddaughter Thetburga, who was four-years-old. The person next to Thetburga in the line of succession was Count Gunzelin of Zeeland who, as we discussed, was not legible as his male-line descent was from a Count of Basel, not a Duke of Austria.

Maria II relented, with the condition that Matvey converted to Catholicism. He agreed, and the couple was married in 1306 in Vienna, where Athanasia took on the name Wilhelmina, as Maria II thought that Athanasia was too Greek-sounding. Maria died two months later, making Athanasia – now Wilhelmina – the Archduchess of Austria. The Greek daughter of a weak Countess and an exiled Count’s son, the last person to expect to be Archduchess of Austria and Head of the House of Habsburg, took the throne.

**Author's Note:**

> Now obviously I took some artistic liberties. If this is real life, the senior agnatic line of the Habsburgs in Austria would've died out when Maria I took the throne, making Maria II and the Karls Habsburg-Rurikovich (Maria I's husband's surname.) As the Head of House is Agnatic Senior, it would go to the Gent Habsburgs after Ernst III, then to the Zeelander Habsburgs. So even if Maria II and then Wilhelmina owns Austria, the Head of House would've been Count Gunzelin of Zeeland. Wilhelmina is still just Habsburg, but after her, the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs would be Habsburg-Lyubechanin.
> 
> The vassals hated Wilhelmina bc of her Greek culture though. I spent her entire 20 years reign putting down rebellions and factions.


End file.
